We have a secret.
It’s a room that we have never shown on the blog before.
Mostly because we hate it and can’t wait till the day that we can afford to rip it all out and start over.
It’s name is our Master Bathroom.
Let’s just say that you were sitting on my side of the bed (apparently we just became REALLY close), you would be able to see right inside our loo.
Why do you get an unobstructed view of the loo?
It’s because the room….the hideous pain in my retinas….is without a door.
We took it off because it opened into the bathroom…only to hit the other door for the closet….and that’s if you don’t hit the person standing in front of the mirror first.
Needless to say, if one of us needs to GO TO THE BATHROOM, the other person has to leave the bedroom entirely. We are weird like that. There was a time we risked it and attempted an open-door policy….let’s just say that I do not ever recommend this. It can ruin your perception of your mate….your quality of attraction can shrivel up to a near-death state and the entire experience can singe the hairs in your nose. And that’s not even mentioning the vomit.
Oh the vomit….
So now that you know we have a secret room…I figured we should just put it all out there. Let it all hang out. Let my shame see the light of the universe. It’s not that bad in the photos afterall.
When we bought the house, the entire room was wallpapered with pink hideous acid-washed paper. Again, they must have been smokin dope. Either that or they were blind. I can come up with no other explanation. We ripped out most of it but you can still see little remnants that got stuck behind our countertop.
And that mauve countertop?
Yeah. classy.
We tried to tone it down by using $5 Oops paint to make the walls uber-neutral. But alas, there are some things that can not be neutralized.
And the entire space is really very limited…so it functions more as a one person room. The tiny mirror is just enough for me to see my giant head.
And on the other side of the old vanity is the toilet. Above the 1970’s toilet (thank Goodness it is white!) we installed a little rack we registered for at Target when we got married. It holds a little basket of girl-toiletries and some cute green glass knicknacks we got at Pier1.
And speaking of baskets – we also have a Pottery Barn basket on the floor for me to stash a couple ads or old magazines. Just beware if you come over our house – some of the magazines have been in the bathroom. (Seinfield anyone?)
Across from the sink is our 1 man shower and a closet. Well, it used to be a closet…complete with door…but we decided to make it look more like built in shelves by tearing out the door and installing drywall and a curtain. The curtain is great because we can just whip it closed anytime our shelving becomes a little messy. Or a lot messy. It’s usually the latter.
And since we only have one functional towel rack, this hook was just the thing to allow another area for towels to hang dry.
But the worst part?
Yeah…the absolute worst part about this room is the shower. The previous owners decided to tile it themselves and when they did, they must have used old grout. It literally crumbles out of the grooves. This is actually a picture of the floor when it was SCRUBBED. It always has these grout lines that are hideously black…making it look just filthy.
It’s enough to make you avoid cleaning your own grooves…if you know what I mean.
We often say that we want to redo the space but it is quite expensive to redo an entire bathroom. But that doesn’t stop me from dreaming about a makeover…complete with an expanded shower and non-mauve countertops…maybe even a little pocket door.
So how bout it? Pretty bad huh? What’s worse – that grout failure or that countertop mistake? Or maybe you can totally trump my little secret loo with a bathroom that is really hideous? Or perhaps your shame lies in an office or kitchen or really hideous bedroom? Go on and describe the worst room in your own home. Please do share – misery loves company 🙂
Yea the countertop is pretty bad. But on the plus side, I love the view of your bedroom. what color is it? and do you have other pics of your entire bedroom (I looked at your house tour but it really only shows the wall with the bed).
Oh Katie, it’s really not as bad as you think it is!
Do you read Darby’s blog? Surely you do- you’d love her! I think her bathroom (pre-makeover) takes the cake.
http://www.flythroughourwindow.com/2009/04/orange-you-glad/
I suspect when time/money allow, you’ll turn your bathroom into something awesome!
Kelly
i know the feeling. my ‘shame’ room is the kitchen sink area. we have corian and i loathe it but its better than having formica. and the backsplash looks kinds like your shower tile. we have the over the counter sink in the kitchen and water just sits back there. i wipe it up all the time but other people do not. so water sits there and its not pretty. everytime i wash dishes i cringe.
hahhahahahaha You are so funny! I don’t think it’s actually that bad cept’ (sorry I gotta say this) for your grout issue. That’s just horrible man. Sorry!!!
Our master bathroom is just as hideous. We purchased our home last year and it was a model home, so we didn’t get to pick and choose the tiles. All of the house, except for our freakin’ master bathroom is colored with warm neutral colors. WTF? So, here goes! Feel free to vomit. http://pandeldreamer.blogspot.com/2008/09/did-bottle-of-peptol-bismol-spill-in.html
Oh, I have you two beat to h-e-double-hockeysticks and back again!
When we bought our lakehouse, there was a bathroom on the main floor and a bathroom in the basement.
The basement one was just a bathroom – old, in desperate need of a redo, but neutral.
But neutral was NOT the word for the 1st floor bathroom. Here are the words (and yes, it was as bad as your imagination is going to make it – I’ll send pictures another time since I don’t have them handy!): blue and silver foil wallpaper, beige one-piece plastic shower surround, toilet tank with a piece of duct tape keeping it from leaking (on the side of the tank *away* from the door so you didn’t see that until it burst – the day we moved in!), dirty light fixture over the sink, an old high-hat version of a heat lamp, cheap white cabinet installed over the toilet, and the entire room was MAYBE 4’x7′, INCLUDING the shower!
AND when we tore that wallpaper down, behind it was beige wallpaper with – are you sitting down? – line drawings of naked cartoon people on it.
I win!
yeah, probably not the most ideal room for the gorgeous bower house, but you’ve certainly made do with what you’ve got and made it cute nonetheless. now that yhl has redone a bathroom, it’s your turn!
At least it is a somewhat hidden room (and it is not THAT bad!). Our most hideous room is probably our dining room.. right in the middle of our main floor… right there when you walk in.. The plaster underneath the hideous wallpaper is crumbling, so it will not be an easy/cheap task to remodel… The previous owners also never replaced the shoe on the floor trim after they refinished the hardwoods, so there is a nice space between the floor and the trim.. And don’t get me started on the light fixture!!
Boy do I ever…(Does the entire basement count as one room? Didn’t think so!!) I would have to say the WORST room in our house right now is our Office. Basically because it is void of any design at all. It’s a hodgepodge of furniture, wall decor and clutter. White paint on the walls and a huge clunky dark wood desk. Ehhh. I can’t wait to do it right!!
(btw, I am not sure if anyone has brought this up to you or not, but did you know that your blog has “Title Unknown” for your title in Google Reader? Just lettin’ you know!)
Also…got any great advice on where to go for window covering ideas? All of our bedrooms, including the dreaded office mentioned above, have 40″ H x 72″ L windows…and curtains always seems so STUBBY on them, especially valances. It looks equally as odd to hang the curtains LONGER on each side…but I digress, I am rambling! 🙂 Thanks!
Before we renovated our main bath in our last house it might have topped yours. The base was dark wood that had been distressed showing the plywood it really was. The counter tops were white ith gold fuax marbling and glitter, like kindergarten paste and glitter, kind of glitter. the rest of the room looked fine if you squinted your eyes but the tile was cracked, uneven, and missing almost all of the edge pieces. I renovated it two weeks before we moved and eventually sold it. I think I was only in it a few showers. 🙁
I can trump this! I would KILL for a sub-par master bath . . . because we don’t have a master bath. In fact, we only have one bathroom for the ENTIRE house . . . and it’s like half the size of this one 🙂 So . . . if you look at it that way, maybe it makes you feel at least a bit better? Cuz when I have to pee and my husband is showering or something . . . uh, we don’t really have an option (is that TMI? oh, gawd, sorry!)
My bathroom was the first project that I did when I bought my house and I love it now (although it’s still small). I ended up taking some closet space so that I could add a deep soaking tub in the place of my tiny and ugly shower. The whole thing only cost me $3,200 and I did it without such a handy boyfriend! Here’s the link to my before/ after pictures: http://www.thriftylittleblog.com/2009/10/bathroom-afters.html
PS I would kill for a nice pocket door!
I feel compelled to walk out of my cubicle right now, take photos of our bathroom and send them to you. If only my boss would be completely OK with that…We have the same disgusting grout issue going on and some wooden blinds that are rotting. I’m pretty ashamed that we haven’t takes any steps to remedy this. I may send those pictures.
Oh, yall aren’t weird for making the each other leave when you have to go to the bathroom. My fiance have the same rule.
You’re not alone! We bought our first home, a 1950’s ranch, in May and have done a lot of much-needed work to it already. All the rooms were sponge painted, along with all the doors and some of the door knobs. But that was easy enough to fix. Our bathroom is the disaster area.
Whoever lived in our house before us put paneling up in our bathroom that looks like tile. Not just halfway up the walls, but IN the shower, too. Like instead of real tile, it’s just this nasty wood paneling. There’s lots of gross discoloration and mildew on the caulk in there, but whenever I try to clean it, it crumbles. And since we have no ventilation in the bathroom, we have mold growing behind the faux tile paneling which is discoloring the whole interior of the shower.
We’re in the same boat as you because we still need to save up $ to fix it. Also it’s the only shower in the house, so it’s hard to pull the trigger on becoming shower-less.
I feel for you and your bathroom predicament and think the grout takes the cake for being the most hideous part of it.
Have you seen the new stuff they have at Lowes that is like paint for countertops? I haven’t tried it but looks pretty cool – I looked at a box of it and looks like you can just paint onto old counters to change the look – might be worth looking into – not that I don’t love the mauve countertop…It’s very…ummm…retro…
when we first moved into our home, it took less than a weekend to break out the paint and rollers for a room that we would eventually turn into our home office. check out just what 9 different colors of paint can look like in one room here on my blog!
Wendy – I have seen that countertop paint…it actually made it into our cart one time. That was right before my boyfriend was like “Really Katie? You wanna try to fix the countertop? Why don’t we just put the $30 into savings for when we have to redo the entire thing?” I hate to admit it but he was right. It would be like putting a bandaid on the sinking Titanic. Hopefully we can just tackle the entire thing this coming year. It’s gonna be all based on budget though 🙂
XO – KB
HAHAHAHAHA! I had to comment because I literally just subscribed to your blog last night after finding you, and this was the first post. The reason I had to laugh and comment is because *our* master bath looks identical to this. We ripped off our closet door, we have the exact same towel hooks, and we also do not have a door. I feel ya. I think I can make you feel better, though- not only do we not have a door, the doorway is unfinished with no moulding! Also, the sink and counter were horrible, so we finally ripped them out. When we replaced it, the sink was on backorder, so we just plopped the new counter onto the vanity. And left it that way! So we have a decent counter, but no sink! Nice, huh? I’d take yours over mine!
We had the exact same master bath door issue when we moved into our house. When we remodeled the bathroom, we had a pocket door put in. Awkward space issue solved- I LOVE it and it looks like it would work great in your space too when you get to that point.
Aw, I feel ya on the nasty master bathroom. Though I really have seen worse than that! I wonder if you could chip out the old grout and re-grout? There’s probably a lot you can do to spruce it up without spending too much. We’re attempting a master bath reno on a super budget, so I’ll guess I know for sure soon enough how much impact a couple bucks and a lot of sweat can make on a formerly hideous space. Oh, and did you know you can paint linoleum countertops? It actually can look pretty great- I painted our guest bathroom countertop with rustoleum stone effect spray paint then sealed with poly and wax. Not as nice as brand new real stone countertops, but much better than the nasty color it was!
EEEK! That IS hideous. 🙂 But I can top your hideousness – when we moved into our house, there was CARPET ON THE BATHROOM WALLS. CARPET ON THE WALLS! We also had lovely matching dusty pink tub, toilet, and sink. And the wallpaper? The wood trim in the room had wallpaper that coordinated nicely with the wallpaper on the upper half of the walls. EVERY INCH of the room was covered in carpet or wallpaper (except for the ugly old tub surround). And? For reasons we can’t figure out, there were no electrical outlets in the bathroom at all. (Yet there are 6 in our tiny half bath). It boggles the mind.
But! We fixed it! Yay! (and you will, too! 🙂 ) Here’s our before and after: http://homeinthecountry.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/bathroom-reveal/
In our first house we redid the front bathroom — and when we removed the mirror (which was hung too high and off center) we discovered a giant hole. The size of the mirror. That was awesome. Our worst room in the house is the man cave…which will actually be changing very soon!
You could do a quickie reno until the piggy bank is full enough for a real overhaul. Sort of a girdle until the diet. We had to do that on two of our bathrooms. Think peach and teal countertops! And the house was built a decade after those bodacious colors were rad…. Anyhow, a little bonding primer, some paint, and poly, and the counters disappeared into a fairly good looking granite imitation for about $20 and a few hours. Good fix until I can get the real thing. As for grout, my mom once colored all the grout in our entry with a black Sharpie b/c she was sick of them turning black on their own. Never done it myself, but it sounds like a good quick fix. It can’t make it worse!
I can email you pictures of my old master bath…it might just make you feel a little better. Honestly, I don’t think there are words to describe how bad it was. I am grateful every single day I walk into our renovated bathroom, because I can still remember the hideousness that was there before.
I feel your pain…only not with our master bath. When we moved into our house a little more than a year ago, the master bath was the only one that had been brought out of the 80’s. And I’m thankful for that, don’t get me wrong.
But our powder room and guest bath are absolutely HIDEOUS! They both have nasty 80’s flowery wallpaper, the fixtures are way outdated, the mirrors are chipped, and in our guest bath (shudder) we have an avocado green toilet with a white padded toilet seat! I shouldn’t even call it avocado…the inside of an avocado is actually a much nicer shade of green than this toilet.
We love to entertain so this has been a big bummer for me when we have guests over. I always feel like I have to apologize for the nasty bathrooms. I swore they would be the first thing we remodeled, but then my hubs decided to take down a wall in our basement, excuse me, man cave (as he likes to call it), and they’ve been put on the old backburner.
I have to say your master took me back though! I picked out the same towel rack and hooks from Target when we redid the bathroom in our previous home. It was the only bath in that house and it was eensy weensy…but when I look at the ones described above…I kind of miss it.
Sigh…
In our home our master bathroom is a project waiting to be done and let me tell you, your bathroom looks like a bathroom at the Hilton compared to ours. Think grey bath tub, black marble counter top (no it isn’t as luxurious as it may sound and vinyl floors. It’s so awful I can never show the pictures until after we fix it…. Thanks for making me not feel so alone… :0)
Believe me Amanda, I would love to do a quickie reno. But alas, I think our real issue might be what’s underneath that tile. I can’t imagine that crumbling grout is a good moisture barrier. I mean, I know grout allows some moisture through…but this needs an overhaul. Let’s just all fold our hands and bow our heads and ask for NO MOLD when it comes to our future reno, yes?
And let’s ask for a showerhead that actually sprays the tops of our heads without being in the kneeling position 🙂
XO – Katie
Oh, dear, that’s nothing compared to our vinyl waterproof walls, rusted tub (with those awesome foot grip shapes in the bottom!), 100 storage compartments (which would be cool, if it didn’t make the space feel even more claustrophobic), and mold mold mold mold MOLD everywhere! It smelled like mothballs and mold. Poor thing. It smells fresh as a daisy now… but we too have the black grout lines. I think it’s just cheap grout, that was actually suggested by our contractor. Here’s a peek at ours:
http://iheartminiblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/bathroom-remodel.html
We don’t have ANY storage in our bathroom now, except the back of the vessel bowl and the square shelves. Everything else is neatly tucked in the linen closet.
I always wondered what your Master looked like. It makes me glad that your master bath looks about like ours. It gives me a little hope that one day my house can look as amazing as yours does.
I have chipping grout, cracks in the tile, and somebody that didn’t measure when they put in the light fixtures because they don’t line up with the double mirrors and sinks. Not to mention water that smells like rotten eggs if we don’t treat it. And our house is only 2 years old. (We bought it right before it was finished.) Yet I overlook a lot of that because I still love it. Cracks and all, it’s mine. Plus, you know they build new houses without doors to the bathroom. Seriously, why? We put a curtain up first thing. (Okay, there is a door to the toilet closet.) From the distance your bathroom looks nice! Thanks for showing the nitty gritty.
When my (now) husband and I first walked through our house, we were able to see past all of the thick 1970s carpet and envision our dream house – until we saw the pink bathroom. Haha, it’s pretty crazy. Mauvey-dusty-rose goodness. In the post below, I show a before and “now” of said bathroom. We’ve tried to just embrace it for now, until we can gut it and start over! (At least we’ve removed the old lady bar.)
http://sarahg816.blogspot.com/2009/09/9-month-review.html
It’s not too hard to remodel a bath on a budget. It’s the items used that can add up. Yes, you will spend several hundred dollars on the shower and possibly the loo but if you have a Restore in your area you might just find a vanity & sink or at least a vanity & mirror and doors. Maybe if the main door opened into the bedroom? I love, love Swanstone for a shower (& sink). No grout lines, they make it so a homeowner can install it, nice colors, etc. All I can say is when you do the loo get a chair height.
I am afraid its not the worst I have ever seen! 😉
That being said, I painted (and epoxed) my kitchen countertops about 5 years ago for a temp fix…very happy with them still. Let me know if you want tips.
It certainly does pale in comparison to the rest of your gorgeous house… BUT it’s not that bad. I’ve definitely seen worse! 🙂
You are way too hard on it…its not bad at all. Just needs a few cosmetic changes that won’t cost too much or take too much time. Ive seen way worse. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefanier/2429116354/in/set-72157619752534123/
That was my parlor floor bathroom before we changed it.
As a temporary solution, have you thought about putting a curtain up over the door? At least you would have some privacy.
The funny part about this room is that these are the AFTER photos. If only I could have shown you the before versions 🙂
We know that the countertop is awful…but we feel like it is a misuse of money to replace a countertop when the base cabinet is rotting out underneath it. Sure it looks fine…but most things do after I coat them with three cans of paint. And the tile floor has the same grout problem…so combine that with a bad shower tile job, bad shower grout & the need for a new toilet that doesn’t require a thirty second hold on the handle to get a flush…not to mention an extra deep closet that has a weird sloped floor underneath our patchy drywall fix & no bathroom door, well, it really adds up. I know we could make some more cosmetic changes – but you know me…always trying to pinch a penny! And every penny saved means we are one step closer to a newer loo. Plus, since Jeremy & I are the only ones who have to suffer with our mauve-delight, we figure it’s better to wait than waste one more cent trying to do a quick fix.
Is this way too much info or what?!
Anyway – I am definitely loving hearing all about your own worst rooms so keep em coming!
XO – KB
I think you “love” your master bath as much as I love mine. The former owners also put wall paper in the bathroom…only the shower is SO small meaning I hit my elbows and bumped my head the first few times I was in there and did something crazy like drop the soap, that small! Its a problem, the small shower and wallpapered bathroom, seeing as the water splashes up on the wallpaper…wall paper and water do not mix….but when they do happen to mix like they do on a daily basis in our little house… a fuzzy little friend comes to visit that must be killed with bleach as soon as it is spotted…sigh…I can’t wait to redo that whole bathroom! It’s our next project because of the mold issue. We are praying the bleach has done it’s job….otherwise it might be a tad bit more expensive then originally planned!
It’s not that bad! However, a piece of advice I will give. As a parent of 2, I can tell you that if you want to redo this room- do it now. They suck money and time beyond belief. If you can’t afford a full redo, replace the counter for $50ish. The grout can be painted with less than $10 of grout paint. I repainted our white grout with gray SEVERAL years ago and it has help up perfectly! You get on hands and knees with a tiny brush and paint it in. YOu just wipe over the tile and the excess comes right up. I highly reccomend it. It may not stop it from chipping, but it would at least look clean.
I FEEL YOUR PAIN!!! While the previous owners of our house did update the tile they did it (and many other updated things) temselves and let’s just say they DID NOT have your grouting skills! Whenever I actually scrub the grout in the shower it crumbles everywhere.
Well, it may not be the prettiest bathroom in your house but it’s a bathroom in your bedroom. Ahh~to live in such luxury! 😉 We’re currently doing a mini-makeover in our one and only teeny-tiny bathroom and we’re hoping to add a second bathroom to our house this year (!!). I think it’s pretty smart to wait until your ready to gut it’s not your only one. Our biggest shame is our office. Every other week it becomes a massive junk room that we’re having to take care of. Seriously, I don’t know where all of our junk comes from!
Did you see the post I did yesterday?
http://thepurplepeach.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/a-progressive-bathroom/
Is everyone doing/dreaming of bathroom renos or what? I love looking at all the links everyone posted – hysterical! And I didn’t think there was a bathroom worse than our bumble bee…
-Emily
Classy!! Our travesty of a room is easily
the bathroom. Whomever designed it clearly
didn’t look beyond the bottle of pepto in the
medicine cabinet. Think pink tile on
floors and half way up the walls. Our (poorly)
built-in vanity is a pastel truquoise blue
topped with a matching pink counter. To drive
it home there’s a window in our shower. You
know, because we like to show off our Easter
egg-esque space to the neighbors. If only
this wasn’t our only bathroom…
We have matching blue toilets about 5 feet apart, and weirdly enough I just posted my bathroom last night…
http://thatseventieshouse.blogspot.com/2010/01/bathroom-paint.html
Love your blog! This post made me laugh b/c our bathroom situation is similar — we took down the door due to space and there were definitely privacy issues. Our solution was to hang a super long velvet curtain over the opening on an oil-rubbed bronze rod up by the ceiling. We usually have it draped to one side with a matching bronze holdback on the right, about waist-high, unless of course someone is doing their business ;). Though the curtain was a functional addition, I actually love the way it looks! You’ve done very nicely with the bathroom as it is but I can’t wait to see what you’d do to remodel it!
Granted we live in an apt. and can’t even paint a wall, let alone change the tile in our bathroom BUT it’s weird white divided octagon tile with BLUE grout….yes BLUE, on the floor. The walls are fully covered in a matching blue tile and they coordinate nicely with our white and blue swirly seashell sink…
Your jealous – I know.
Katie, you’re not alone, the grout in my shower is horrible. And the caulk between the tile and the shower? Eww. When I moved in a painstakingly removed all the caulk and replaced it, thinking it would help the issue. Guess what? It didn’t help at all. The nasty black just came right back. Now I just leave it and dream of the day when I can tear my one and only bathroom to bits and start over. Oh, and try to never look down.
You have absolutely made the most of that room with the cute baskets and jars! I agree with waiting til you can do it right to spend any money on it. At least it’s hidden away in your bedroom.
My husband and I have definitely lived in some homes with complete bathroom disasters. It doesn’t help that he’s 6’5″ tall and I’m 5’3″. In our first apartment together, his view into the tiny mirror was his face perfectly framed, which meant my view was of only the most ambitious fly-away hairs on top of my head. I actually had to keep a stool under the sink to stand on to see my face in the mirror. Nothing makes you feel like an adult in your first apartment like having to stand on a stool to brush and floss your teeth. In our next apartment, karma caught up with my husband (for laughing at my stool) in the form of a showerhead that my husband had to literally kneel under to get his hair wet. We’re way more balanced now in our house, but I totally sympathize with you!!
my shame room is also our bathroom….it has carpet….but like variegated brown, the indoor outdoor stuff…its hard to describe the color…mm, maybe like if you had white carpet and someone three up chili all over it, yea that….and its a rental so we have neither the permission to change it or the willingness to spend money to change something that isnt ours for life…so we just deal…but its gross, impossible to keep clean…and the landlord has had to fix a leaky toilet, twice…in a carpeted bathroom
We’re supposed to close tomorrow on a house that has a blue sink and blue tub in the main guest bathroom. How’s that for a design challenge? 🙂 And please do tell if anyone has any tips to make this work. We are planning to try to embrace the retro, and paint everything else white. (white tile in the tub surround) Wish me luck!
The grout is definitely the worst!
I never cease to be amazed by the bad taste of homeowners! Are they high on drugs?
Be jealous. Our bathtub is green. We did remove the green balloon curtains and pink and green wallpaper with hearts.
Well, my bathroom is OFF the kitchen!
sigh
it had a solid wooden door that would open INTO the kitchen and in front of the sink – the kitchen is small enough.
so off it went and in its place i put a louvred door (yeah home depot) that opens INTO the bathroom and is positioned so that the louvres allow you to see into the kitchen not the other way around.
when i have a guest i go into my study (three rooms away) so there is some audio privacy.. but it really works.
have you thought of a louvred door? it will really help and its a cheap temp solution.
All three of our bathrooms are our secret rooms. Our home is from the 70’s but we weren’t so lucky with the white toilet! The basement bath is bright blue. Blue shower, blue toilet, blue walls, blue vinyl blue and white faux marble sink, and a blue/silver faucet to top it off. Master bath is avocado everything with a gold faucet. And main bath is goldenrod with a black faux marble sink in the shape of a seashell (which goes great with our hard water and faucet that has been leaking for 10 years).
But the good news is we’re going to do a mini fix up of the basement bath this year. Mainly to get it functional so we can redo our other two baths upstairs the following year!
Oh Katie, your bathroom is a palace compared to our upstairs bath! (We don’t have a master one.) Trust me, it’s at least three times the size of ours. We had “hoped” to be able to replace the shower with a bathtub, but found out that since we would have to move the loo to do it, it would cost $10K. Not happening. So we’ll have to settle for a smaller vanity (so your knees don’t hit it when you go potty) to open it up. That and radiant flooring (less than $200 for 20 sq ft – the ONLY advantage of a small bathroom) with new tile. Oh, and we need a fan! So I really think your bathroom is GREAT looking! Who cares about the maroon counter? I’ve seen much, much worse! But I think you’re funny about the no open door policy. We never close ours. :=)
I think you should be applauded for what you have done with the bathroom–I know I’ve seen worse.
I’m planning on painting our master suite and I love the colors you have on the walls in your bathroom and bedroom. Would you mind sharing?
Our whole house is one giant before but the bathroom is pretty spectacular. Around the tub is a single row of 4×4″ white tiles. The REST of the bathroom is done in laminate floor tiles. And I don’t mean of the peel-&-stick variety. Think more along the lines of elementary school, church rec room, or old day care facility. Oh! And their crumbling. Forgot that tiny little detail. So whenever you walk into the bathroom, you get pieces of plastic crumblies stuck to the bottom of your feet. Ick.
Doesn’t look to bad to me. But then, I’m a guy.
We’ve been in our house for more than a year and we don’t yet have a door to the _main bedroom_. And it’s off the living room. So there.
Our kitchen was by far the worst room in our house. Talk about white overload!! Too neutral can be a bad thing 🙂 I swear!
Here’s a post a did a few months ago of the improvements we’ve made. They’re still on going, though.
http://theproudfeet.blogspot.com/2009/04/kitchen-from-then-to-now.html
Katie, you might try looking for salvage stores in and around your area if you’ve not already. We have a place called Home Emporium here in VA, and they sell cabinetry, granite, sinks, faucets, tile, etc. for a lot cheaper than stores. Places like that are awesome if available, and if you have a good eye (which you do) at pulling things together.
Also, if you do want to do a cosmetic update to hold you over, I’d suggest instead of painting over crappy grout that you have Jeremy remove the grout, and re-grout. Some elbow grease and $30 bucks could give you several years of not HAVING to do a big fix.
I’m glad to see someone else shares my views about bathroom privacy – I always feel like I’m some kind of ultra-prude! Anyway, I agree with Rhey’s suggestion of putting a curtain in the doorway. Also, Jen? Carpet on the walls is horrid indeed, but we once looked at a house that had deep blue shag carpet on the bathroom floor and GOING UP THE SIDE OF THE TUB. And that wasn’t even the worst thing about that house.
Our master bathroom is also due for an overhaul
but it’s not quite as bad as yours. Our house was built in 2004 so it’s not outdated, just not our style.
Oh, and I’m with you on the, uh, privacy during certain acts. I’ve been with my hubby for almost 15 years (awww, high school sweethearts) and that’s one thing we DON’T need to know about each other.
Katie, I have a secret too. And I’m so ashamed of it!!! I, too, have a beast of a bathroom like you in my new house that i’m renovating. It’s “U-G-L-Y, YOU AIN’T GOT NO ALIBI” ugly!! Think, green toilet, sink, AND TUB, with pink and black tiles! Yah, the previous homeowner’s were smokin’ crack lol. If you want to see what I’m talking about…take a look at it on my blog http://homeat6.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/this-bathroom-stinks-not-literally/
xoxo – N
Katie – yeah, that counter is preeeettty bad. WHAT were they thinking? My friend has a horror room: Her ex-husband started renovating their sole bathroom and ripped out the shower. He got tired of it, and gave up. He taped the old shower to the wall with duct tape. He also said he fixed the leak in the wall . . . He then left her and took all her money. And oops – he didn’t get the leak fixed. So there’s a hole in her wall where things leaked and rotted the structure. 4 years later she’s still duct-taping the shower, saving money and hoping to have the bathroom redone this spring.
All that being said, good for you for not spending money on “cheap fixes” and just saving towards the ultimate goal instead! I think that’s a smart move. . . one that I may not have had the patience to do!
Oh Katie! I’m a regular reader who had to come out of my lurker state to make you feel better about how “bad” your bathroom is!
When we bought our house 2.5 years ago, the 1970’s turquoise tiles were accented by turquoise walls, CEILING & turquoise linoleum. When we met the previous owner, he proudly proclaimed he was going for the “monocromatic look”. Uh, thanks for that info. Our only saving grace was that a new pedistal sink & new toilet had been installed. So we painted the walls & ceiling white (4 painstaking coats, I might add), changed out the faucet, mirror and light fixture, and added white linens, window treatments & shelving/cabinets. We’re still living with the blue tile (which will likely stay since this isn’t our permanent home). And the kicker to all of this is that while fixing a wobbly sink 2 weeks ago, we unveiled BEAUTIFUL white tile under our manky blue floor…leading us to believe that the previous owner was a tad delusional. Don’t even get me started on the black linoleum he put over our wainscotting on the kitchen walls…another story, another day!
This is funny. Just the other day I was in my bathroom (in serious need of decorating) and I was thinking… I’m going to look at KB’s bathroom online and see if she has any ideas. I think your blog is a good resource for all things decor. But when I thought about it i realized, there is no master bath photo on your website! Now I know why! LOL.
I think if you can’t change it for now, embrace it. My hubby and I lived in this ugly-a apartment on Long Island when we were first married. The bathroom had a pink toilet, tub, sink and floor! It was built in the 70’s, they were probably high when they picked them out. And the walls were sponge painted grey. If you stood in there too long you’d get dizzy. I had to pay my landlord an additional security deposit to paint it but it was worth it. We actually painted the walls this fleshy pink color that sort of downplayed the rest of the pink. With all brown accents. It wasn’t that bad. Man I wish I could show you pictures of it. It was SO ugly!
My husband and I don’t go to the bathroom in front of each other either, but we had a baby girl two weeks ago and I lost all my dignity! When your in the hospital doctors and nurses will do ANYTHING in front of your husband! I won’t go into details, but going into labor, giving birth, and the next few days in the hospital are really gross and it’s like they wanted my husband to watch everything!
I was just thinking, maybe you could hang a curtain from the outside of the bathroom doorway for the time being, until you can add a pocket door. This might help with the privacy issue. 🙂
Katie. Honey. You have no idea how good you have it. Our master bathroom is 5 x 8!!! No lie. I mean, who in their right mind makes a MASTER BATH 5×8????? I would send pics of it but it’s just a pile of rubble right now. We started demo but then got sidetracked by our kitchen.
We did however finish our hall bath that had puke-inducing 50’s mint, pink AND peach tiles. Here’s the before and almost finished after. I havent posted the latest pics but it’s finally done.
http://www.roomzaar.com/rate-my-space/Bathrooms/From-Gross-to-Gorgeous/detail.esi?oid=7246899
I totally feel your pain, KB! My husband and I are deep in the process of redoing our basement, which was just as poorly designed/constructed/cleanable as your bath. Feel free to follow us along on the journey – your tiling tips are sure to come in handy as we reinstall the bathroom.
And best wishes on Baby Boy Bower!
http://bschoolstudio.blogspot.com/search/label/basement
Hi Katie! How ironic that you are posting about your bathroom – I was finally brave enough to start posting about our work-in-progress bathroom disaster. Check it out http://sohldesign.blogspot.com/2010/01/bathroom-to-be.html (you and I “met” the other day). I can’t WAIT for it to be done. I have such high hopes for this new (small) space. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out…if and when that happens! Your bathroom really doesn’t look that bad, but I know what you mean about certain things grossing you out! We are trying to do as much of it ourselves as we can, with much inspiration from John & Sherry. Ours is almost the same setup as theirs. I do like how you dressed up what you have and made the space look so cute for now!
oohm yeah the countertop is a hot mess, but i say that with love 😉 these were all choices made by the previous owner so it’s all good…i actually wish our master bathroom was larger.it’s the only real complaint i have in our 2 month old house. it is too a one person room, but i am in love with our tub so i guess its even stevens! keep up the great work
Oh, I feel your pain! We have just started (as in this weekend) on fixing up our master bath. Not redoing, just fixing up. Our walls are currently the color mustard poo (you’ll know what I mean when the baby comes). The rusting sink, shower and toilet match the walls. The cabinet is literally rotting away from an unfixed water leak (previous owner’s fault). We’re fixing up the bathroom on a major budget, so we should have it decent enough in say, 2012. Don’t even get me started on the floors…
Completely understand about the door issue! We have a 4 foot wide bathroom, and the door opens into the bathroom, blocking 1/2 of the vanity. We tried sans door, but you’re right – no bathroom doors can make a marriage shrivel up and die.
As bad as our respective “before” bathrooms look, just think how awesome it will make our “after” bathrooms appear!
We…have…carpet. In our master bathroom. Yep. Carpet. My husband and I bought our house in September and have agreed not to do anything to it till we get our tax credit. It’s getting really difficult! I should post photos, but I’m just going to tell you about it. Our home was built in 1985, and has all the original “features.” The carpet in the bathroom (who in their right mind puts carpeting in the bathroom?! **In their defense, it was an elderly couple…) is beige, and it’s turning yellow in front of the shower. Thanks to my 17 week old pitbull/american bulldog puppy, I’m not able to put down rugs, and the carpet around the toilet is prematurely being ripped up. Go, buddy, go! See, he even knows how bad it is! The shower is like a closet, and has seen better days. And we don’t have much storage for linens. Other than that (ugh) we’re lucky; the vanity is decent (original, but decent) with a whole wall mirror (dated, but makes the bathroom look larger). And it’s painted white, which is easy to live with for the time being.
We are dreaming of re-doing that bathroom…along with the kitchen….
**I also love the color of your bedroom. And just remember, your bathroom doesn’t have carpet!! I’ll trade you for the linoleum!
We are in the exact same place with our master bath….it really really needs a reno but it is just too expensive right now to start the project. We had mauve counter tops in our kitchen so I so feel your pain on that one. The one brightside of that…it makes for good party conversation after you get rid of it:).
our hall bath is terrible! we have the lovely black grout lines as well. I think the previous owner tried to cover them up by caulking OVER the mold. sounds healthy, right??
Your bathroom is so much better than mine! I too am dreaming of what a beautiful bathroom I could have! Beautiful counter tops and shower, a toilet that isn’t yellow (better than a pink toilet I guess), and real tile instead of laminate. Oh to dream!
We have the identical bathroom… though, we had a S-Q-U-eeeeeeeee-K-Y pocket door; barely functioning at that. I sealed door into pocket with matching trim; completely hidden now, and hung a barn style door for opening.
🙂 Happy to say, I am once again my wife’s hero.